The invention is generally related to audio/video playback and reception, and in particular, to access control of audio/video content, e.g., to control access to objectionable content such as violence, profanity and/or sexually-suggestive material.
Limiting access to objectionable content in audio and/or video transmissions is a significant concern, particularly given the increasing availability of creative content via televison, radio and the Internet. Parents in particular are concerned with limiting their children""s access to objectionable content such as violent, vulgar or sexually-suggestive subject matter. Parents can have some success in controlling what their kids watch and listen to; however, few parents are able to maintain continuous watch over their children to limit their exposure to inappropriate content. Furthermore, in many instances, parents may not be aware that objectionable content may be present in a particular program until it is too late.
Traditionally, access to creative content has been manually controlled by parents based upon ratings assigned to particular programs by broadcasters or ratings boards. In response to public and governmental pressure, some broadcasters have also indicated the presence of potentially objectionable content by displaying rating information at the beginning of a program. Moreover, some broadcasters embed a rating code within a video signal or within program guide information so that an appropriately-configured receiver such as a television or set top box will automatically restrict access to programs containing inappropriate content. However, such access controls are at their root dependent upon either the broadcasters willingness and accuracy in applying ratings to content or the ability of ratings boards to apply appropriate ratings to programs based upon prevailing standards. As such, if a broadcaster does not choose to participate in providing ratings of particular programs, or if a ratings board applies standards different than would be applied by a parent, children may still be exposed to content that a parent feels is inappropriate despite the assigned rating.
To address these concerns, a significant amount of effort has been directed toward automated devices for controlling access to objectionable content. In the area of television broadcasting, as well as the related fields of video tapes, Digital Versatile Disks (DVD""s) and the like, various devices have been proposed for removing inappropriate spoken words from the audio track of a transmission or broadcast. Some devices, for example, monitor a closed captioning data stream to detect inappropriate words such as profane or vulgar words. Other devices utilize speech recognition or audio pattern matching to detect inappropriate spoken words. Such devices limit access to such inappropriate content principally by controlling a mute circuit on a television or otherwise stripping the inappropriate content from the audio signal. Moreover, when a closed captioning stream is utilized as the detection mechanism, the inappropriate textual representation of a spoken word may also be replaced with a more appropriate substitute.
Conventional access control devices, however, suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, such devices focus on detecting and limiting access to inappropriate language. However, the scope of inappropriate content is greater than simply vulgar language. As much concern has been focused on violent and sexually-suggestive content, neither of which may be reliably detected solely on the basis of spoken words. Further, given that such devices dynamically scan an audio signal, the degree of access control is typically limited to objectionable content as that content is being presented, thereby permitting a viewer to continue to watch an objectionable program once the objectionable audio content is over. Moreover, given that such devices typically only mute an audio signal, when the audio signal forms the sound track of a video broadcast, potentially objectionable video content may still be displayed despite the fact that the inappropriate audio content has been removed.
Therefore, a significant need continues to exist in the art for a manner of automatically controlling access to objectionable audio content.
The invention addresses these and other problems associated with the prior art by providing in one aspect an apparatus, program product, and method that restrict access to objectionable audio content by performing sound recognition on an audio signal to identify objectionable non-spoken audio content, e.g., by detecting violent sounds such as screams, explosions, gun shots, sirens, punches, kicks, etc., and/or other non-spoken content such as sexually-suggestive sounds. Therefore, in contrast to conventional devices that are only capable of detecting spoken audio content such as vulgar or profane words, access to a wider variety of objectionable content may be controlled.
The invention also addresses other problems associated with the prior art by providing an apparatus, program product and method that restrict access to objectionable audio content by performing sound recognition on an audio signal and tracking occurrences of objectionable audio content in the audio signal so that access to the audio signal may be controlled responsive to the identification of multiple occurrences of objectionable audio content. By tracking the number of occurrences of objectionable content, automated control may be more flexible than is provided by conventional systems wherein control is premised on detection of a single occurrence.
The invention also address additional problems associated with the prior art by providing an apparatus, program product and method that restrict access to objectionable audio content by performing sound recognition on an audio signal and inhibiting access to a program associated with the audio signal responsive to the identification of objectionable audio content.
These and other advantages and features, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and of the advantages and objectives attained through its use, reference should be made to the Drawings, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is described exemplary embodiments of the invention.